William Francis Rupp v. Harley O. Teets, as Warden of the California State Prison at San Quentin, California

The appellant Rupp is held by Warden Teets, the appellee, pursuant to a judgment and commitment of a California Superior Court imposing the death penalty by reason of Rupp’s conviction of murder in the first degree. The killing was in an attempt to perpetrate rape.

After an unsuccessful appeal to the California Supreme Court, People v. Rupp, 41 Cal.2d 371 , 260 P.2d 1 , and a denial of certiorari by the United States Supreme Court, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court of California which was denied and his petition for writ of certiorari to review that denial was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States. He then filed in the court below the petition for writ of habeas corpus which we here review, a petition which alleges the same matters contained in the former petition for habeas corpus presented to the California court. The petition was denied by the court below, which issued a certificate of probable cause and this appeal followed.

The principal complaint in the petition is that upon his trial in the state court Rupp was denied the opportunity to present his defense that there was lacking one of the elements of the crime involved, namely,…